Festive footfall soars in UK bars and pubs

UK consumers visited pubs, bars and clubs 15 million more times over this last Christmas period than in 2013, new figures have revealed.

Pubs, bars and clubs have celebrated soaring consumer footfall over the Christmas period

According to CGA Strategy, 37.8m consumers paid a total of 165m visits to on-trade venues in the four weeks to 3 January 2015 – equating to an average of more than four visits each.

Venues sold an average of 569 more drinks over Christmas than in an average month – and over the four weeks, total food and drink sales were up 2.0% on the previous year.

CGA claims the results are in line with those from Coffer Peach Business Tracker, which revealed that like for like sales for managed pub and bar groups in the longer six-week period to January 3 were also up 2.0%.

Its research shows that festive footfall reached a peak on New Year’s Eve, when 11.3 million visits were made to the on-trade, half of them to pubs.

The greatest number of drinks were sold on Black Friday, with a total of 9.6m visits. CGA notes that 2.2m consumers also tried a new product or drink over the period.

“This research shows that visits to pubs, bars, restaurants and clubs are an integral part of the UK’s Christmas—but it also reveals ways in which the on-trade can get an even bigger share of the festive spend,” said Rachel Perryman, CGA’s client services director.

“Operators who get their offer spot on and are prepared to experiment with products and promotions will be best placed to take advantage when Christmas comes around again.”

Previous research by Cambridge University Press and Lancaster University claimed that gin and vodka have replaced Sherry and brandy as Britons’ favourite Christmas spirits.